TSUS Regents Approve Guaranteed Price Plan For SHSU

Nov. 8, 2013
SHSU Media Contact: Julia May

BEAUMONT - The Texas State University System Board of Regents approved a Guaranteed Price Plan for Sam Houston State University and four additional component institutions during the board’s quarterly meeting at Lamar University on Friday (Nov. 8).

The optional four-year, fixed-rate tuition plan is designed to provide undergraduate students and parents with more predictability when paying for college and to encourage more timely graduation within the four years of fixed tuition. The plan guarantees that the rates for tuition and mandatory fees will not increase for the participating students for 12 consecutive semesters.

Under the plan, the designated tuition rate for SHSU will be $172 per semester credit hour. Students are not required to participate in the fixed-rate program and can continue to pay standard tuition rates if they choose.

The board also approved Guaranteed Price Plans for Lamar University, Sul Ross State University, Sul Ross State University Rio Grande College, and Texas State University.

In other business, the regents authorized SHSU to name a proposed facility in honor of the late Fred Pirkle, an SHSU alumnus who made provisions for his estate to provide $25 million to sustain and enhance the study of industrial engineering technology at the university.

The first $10 million of Pirkle’s bequest is designated for the construction of a technology center to include classrooms, faculty and staff offices, conference rooms, auditoriums, laboratories as needed for the existing industrial technology program and future programs that support engineering technology education. The facility will be named the Fred Pirkle Technology Center, and the name will be changed to the Fred Pirkle Engineering Technology Center whenever the university is approved to offer an engineering technology program.

The regents also authorized the renaming of the SHSU Police Department Building in honor of Charles W. Tackett. Tackett worked 55 years in Texas law enforcement and retired from SHSU in after serving 32 years as the university’s director of public safety and chief of police.

He was instrumental in requesting that some form of legislation be mandated which would clarify the jurisdiction of university police officers throughout the state of Texas. As a result, House Bill 391 was signed into law in 1987, specifying that campus law enforcement jurisdiction included all counties in which property is owned, leased, rented or otherwise under the control of a university or public technical institute that employs peace officers. Also, the legislation granted to campus law enforcement officers the authority to enforce traffic laws on streets and highways, as well as jurisdiction outside of their primary area.

SHSU professor of finance Balasundram Maniam was honored as a Regents’ Professor. The title is a lifetime designation bestowed by the Board of Regents to recognize exceptional and outstanding professors who have achieved excellence in teaching, research and publication, and community service.

The next meeting of the Board of Regents will be held Feb. 27-28, 2014, at Texas State University in San Marcos.

- END -

This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office:
Associate Director: Julia May
Manager: Jennifer Gauntt
Located in Administration Building Suite 115
Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834

Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.